Garment hangers



July 13, 1965 G. G. BENNETT 391945458 GARMENT HANGERS Filed April 1, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

GERALD G. BENNETT AYTORNE Y y 1965 G. G. BENNETT 3,194,458

GARMENT HANGERS Filed April 1, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. GERALD G. BENNETT ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,194,458 GARMENT HANGERS Gerald G. Bennett, 636 Thayer Ave., Los Angeles, Calif.

Filed Apr. 1, 1963, Ser. No. 269,373 2 Claims. (6]. 223-92) There are also many womens garments with sleeves which have wide necklines. In placing either of these types of garments on the hangers of the prior art, it is generally necessary to exercise great care or to clip the garment to the hanger to insure that it does not slip 01f. Further, unless great care is exercised in placing the garment on the hanger it will tend to bunch up or pull to the center. This makes it extremely diflicult to hang such apparel properly and to avoid creasing. This problem becomes even more accentuated in the display of such garments in stores where they are constantly removed from the hangers and replaced thereon. Under such conditions it is extremely diflicult to avoid their falling on the floor or from being in an unappealing condition.

The above mentioned shortcomings of prior art hangers are overcome in the device of the invention by providing a relatively wide central hanger portion which runs at substantially right angles to the longitudinal axis of the suspension hook. The hook is attached to the central portion at approximately the mid-point thereof. Sloped portions are provided adjacent to the central portion which drops oif sharply therefrom. In one embodiment of the invention for use with garments having straps, the ends of the hanger are turned up to prevent the straps from slipping off the hanger, the straps hanging on the portions of the hanger adjacent the ends thereof. In another embodiment of the device of the invention, the central portions are wide enough to prevent a garment having sleeves from sliding very far from its original resting position. The ends of the hanger are curved downward away from the suspension hook to provide support for the sleeves. In another embodiment of the invention features of the first two embodiments are combined to enable utilization either for supporting wide necked garments having sleeves or garments having shoulder straps.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide improved garment hangers.

It is a further object of this invention to facilitate the display and sale of garments.

It is still a further object of this invention to provide a garment hanger from which garments will not readily slip off.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a garment hanger from which garments can easily be suspended and are held on the hanger in their initially suspended position.

Other objects of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing of which:

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a first embodiment of the device of the invention,

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a second embodiment of the device of the invention,

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a third embodiment of the device of the invention, and

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a fourth embodiment of the device of the invention.

Referring now to FIG. 1 a first embodiment of the device of the invention is illustrated. While the device of the invention as shown in FIG. 1 is fabricated of wire,

3,194,453 Patented July 13, 1965 the hanger may be fabricated to equal advantage of plastic, wood, cardboard or other suitable material and may be formed of a solid support piece as shown in FIG. 2. Suspension hook 11 connects to central portion 12 of the hanger at substantially the mid-point thereof. As shown in FIG. I, hook 111 is integrally formed with central portion 12 but it may be fastened thereto with any suitable attachment means by techniques well known in the art. Central portion 12 runs substantially normal to the longitudinal axis of suspension hook 11.

Sloped portions 15 drop off sharply from central portion 12 at points 14. The slope is relatively steep at the parts adjacent to point 14 but tapers off to a gradual slope towards the ends of the hanger. End portions 17 are turned up and are knob-like in configuration. Notches 20 are formed in sloped portions 15 to accommodate string-type straps which might be found on Womens bathing suits or the like.

As shown in FIG. 1, the device of the invention is illustrated suspending a garment having wide shoulder straps 22. It can be seen that the shoulder straps will naturally rest toward the ends of sloped portions 15. They are prevented from gravitating to central portion 12 by thesteep slope which the sloped portion has adjacent to the central portion. Straps 22 are prevented from falling off the hanger by turned up end portions 17. It can readily be seen that with the hanger of FIG. 1, that the shoulder straps of the garment will naturally come to rest in the ideal position for display and storage, and while readily removable from the hanger will tend to remain in the desired resting position.

Referring now to FIG. 2 a second embodiment of the device of the invention is illustrated. Like. parts of the various illustrated embodiments of the invention are identified by the same numerals. The embodiment of FIG. 2 is illustrated as fabricated of a solid piece which may for example be of plastic or wood. This embodiment of course can if desired be fabricated of wire similarly to the embodiment of FIG. 1. The embodiment of FIG. 2 is illustrated as being utilized to suspend a garment having string-type straps 25 which are held in notches 20. The embodiment may also be utilized to suspend a garment having wide straps such as shown in FIG. 1, if desired. The embodiment of FIG. 2 dilfers from the embodiment of FIG. 1 in that sloped portions 15 rather than having a continuously downward sloping curve have two distinct parts, the first of these 28 having a relatively steep slope, the second of these 29 having a relatively gradual slope. This tends to provide a more distinct resting position for wide shoulder straps. The end portions 17 of the embodiment of FIG. 2 also differ from those of FIG. 1 in that the tip 30 thereof have a hook-like configuration. This tends to more readily hold the shoulder straps of the garment in place even when the garment is laid down across an object such as a chair.

To insure proper separation of wide shoulder straps, central portion 12 should in the embodiments of FIGS. 1 and 2, comprise at least one-third the total horizontal extent of the hanger, a greater length than this one-third minimum being preferable.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a third embodiment of the device of the invention is illustrated. This embodiment is for use with wide-necked garments having some sleeve. In this embodiment of the device of the invention, the ends of the hanger 32 are sloped downward. Sloped portions 15 terminate into rounded portions 33 on which the garment is suspended. As can be seen, the shoulder portions of the garment fit on rounded portions 33 of the hanger. Rounded portions 33 may be, as shown in FIG. 3, roughened on the upper edges thereof to provide friction holding action on the garment. As can be seen, the neck portion of the garment is prevented from sliding up to the center of the hanger by virtue of the steep sloped portions 15. The central portion of the hanger 12 is at least one fifth the total horizontal extent of the hanger so that even with one end of the neck portion moved over so that it is adjacent to the sloped portion 15, the opposite neck portion of the garment will not slide off the ends of the hanger. Thus, wide-necked garments with sleeves are prevented from slipping off.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a fourth embodiment of the device of the invention is illustrated. This embodiment combines some of the features of the embodiments of FIGS. 1 and 3 and is suitable for hanging either wide necked garments with sleeves or garments having shoulder straps. Central portion 12, sloped portions 15, and rounded portions 33 are similar in configuration to the corresponding portions of the embodiment of FIG. 3. Wide-necked garments may be suspended on rounded portions 33 in the same fashion as illustrated in FIG. 3. Garments having straps 22 may be suspended from the turned in portions 40 of the hanger which are immediately adjacent turned up end portions 17 and run inward towards an extension of the longitudinal axis of hook 11. Thus, the embodiment of FIG. 4 has combined features of the other embodiments which enable greater versatility of utilization.

As already noted, any of the embodiments described and illustrated may be fabricatediof plastic, metal, wood, cardboard, or other suitable material and may have a wire frame type construction or may have solid construction.

The deviceof the invention thus provides an improved type of hanger which is a substantial improvement over the prior art. It permits the hanging of garments in a natural position without resorting to any special attachment means and with little problem with bunching of the garment at the center of thehanger or slipping oif the ends thereof.

While this invention has been described and illustrated in detail, it is to be clearly understood that this is intended by way of illustration and example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation, the spirit and scope of the invention being limited only by the terms of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A garment hanger comprising a central portion a suspension hook attached to said central portion at substantially the midpoint of the horizontal extent of said central portion, said central portion having a top surface running substantially normal to the longitudinal axis of said .hook' distance q l to at least one third the total horizontal extent of said j hanger, I

sloped portions adjacent .oppositeends tofsaid central portion, said slopedportions having a continuous downward sloping concave curvature and each including a first part immediately adjacent to said central portion having a relatively steep slope running most of the downward extentof its associated sloped portion and a second part adjacent to said first part having a relatively gradual slope, each of said second partshaving a notch formed therein, and

rounded knob-like end portions adjacent to thegradually sloped parts of said sloped portions, said end portions being turned up,

whereby the strap portions of garments readily come to rest on the gradually sloped parts of said sloped portions held apart from each other by said central portion and are prevented from slipping off said hanger by said turned up end portions.

2. The hanger as recited in claim 1 wherein said end portions are hook shaped.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,045,848 6/36 Geer} 223 92 2,318,770 7 5/43 Freeman 223-91 2,455,478 12/48 Grant 22388 2,665,828 1/54- Jacob 223-92 2,723,787 11/55 Bransdorf 223-93 2,787,406 4/57 Wyatt 223-92 2,912,149 11/59 Stuard 223-92 2,946,493 7/60 Bury et al. 223-92 1 FOREIGN PATENTS 697,058 9/53 Great Britain.

JORDAN FRANKLIN, Primary Examiner.

DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Examiner. 

1. A GARMENT HANGER COMPRISING A CENTRAL PORTION A SUSPENSION HOOK ATTACHED TO SAID CENTRAL PORTION AT SUBSTANTIALLY THE MIDPOINT OF THE HORIZONTAL EXTENT OF SAID CENTRAL PORTION, SAID CENTRAL PORTION HAVING A TOP SURFACE RUNNING SUBSTANTIALLY NORMAL TO THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS OF SAID HOOK A DISTANCE EQUAL TO AT LEAST ONE THIRD THE TOTAL HORIZONTAL EXTENT OF SAID HANGER, SLOPED PORTIONS ADJACENT OPPOSITE ENDS OF SAID CENTRAL PORTION, SAID SLOPED PORTIONS HAVINGA CONTINUOUS DOWNWARD SLOPING CONCAVE CURVATURE AND EACH INCLUDING A FIRST PART IMMEDIATELY ADJACENT TO SAID CENTRAL PORTION HAVING A RELATIVELY STEEP SLOPE RUNNING MOST OF THE DOWNWARD EXTENT OF ITS ASSOCIATED SLOPED PORTION AND A SECOND PART ADJACENT TO SAID FIRST PART HAVING A RELATIVELY GRADUAL SLOPE, EACH OF SAID SECOND PARTS HAVING A NOTCH FORMED THEREIN, AND ROUNDED KNOB-LIKE END PORTIONS ADJACENT TO THE GRADUALLY SLOPED PARTS OF SAID SLOPED PORTIONS, SAID END PORTIONS BEING TURNED UP, WHEREBY THE STRAP PORTIONS OF GARMENTS READILY COM TO REST ON THE GRADUALLY SLOPED PARTS OF SAID SLOPED PORTIONS HELD APART FROM EACH OTHER BY SAID CENTRAL PORTION AND ARE PREVENTED FROM SLIPPING OFF SAID HANGER BY SAID TURNED UP END PORTIONS. 